Who Turned On The "I Need A Blog Switch"?

Yesterday I fielded three phone calls from folks looking to start a blog. Real estate, community board member and a close relative seeking to promote a family event. I think it's great. One common trait among those looking to get into it is how confusing the software appears to them. As simple as Blogger.com is to use it is daunting for many.
The community board member decided a blog was not the best idea once she realized it would be visible by anyone in the world. (requiring registration for users was not an option)
The family member was sent to Blogger and she is up and running. She hasn't figured out hyperlinks yet, we'll get to that today.
The real estate company is finding competition in their niche has a head start so their battle for views in the community will be a test.

Rich Site, Poor site, Everything Else Falls In Between

I'm a bit humbled after viewing the blog design for Cooking With Amy, which sports a brilliant use of the Blogspot platform. The design is credited to Cat Batacan. Amy runs this blog for a total of ZERO dollars for hosting or domain costs. Wow.

Contrast this with Conde Nast's business property Portfolio.com and the $125 million price tag for that site and associated pages. Battelle posted on the news earlier today.

Conde Nast probably could have hired Cat for oh say........ $1,000 per page across the board and saved Uhhhh $124, 500,000 or so, ya think?

Yeah I know there is more to it but come on.

Thanks for the inspiration Cat and Amy. More of our clients want blogs and we are in the learning phase of blog design and content development.
We won't copy but it's tempting.

Blogger Adds Video And News Modules

Score one for Google Blogger! Blogger now allows Blogger bloggers to add a "videobar" or "newsreel" to the sidebar or footer of a Blogger blog.
Users of Blogger (new) simply click "Add A Page Element" under "Customize", and the new options will be obvious. You can name your search bar or video strip and instruct Google which news or video keywords to display results for.

Big Blog Directory caught it too and posts this graphic;

The Power Of Digg

Loren Baker digs Digg. His Search Engine Journal article about Gmail storage made the front page of Digg.com. The front page ranking attracted more than 24,000 unique visits and over two dozen comments on SEJ.
Digg is fickle, you never know what will catch or what Diggers like. Digg's front page or "most popular" stuff is generally from pop culture, bizarre news or interesting images. Loren enjoyed the benefits of an article that was really "dug".